YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING

The liturgical year is designed to ensure that the Church remembers the key events of Biblical history over the course of its three-year cycle. Of course, Easter Sunday always focuses on the resurrection. The first Sunday of Lent is the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Epiphany Day brings the visit of the Magi, and the first Sunday after Epiphany is the wedding at Cana.

The encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus (as important to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist as Maundy Thursday) is celebrated on Easter night. The first Sunday after Easter is traditionally the story of doubting Thomas.

You know how it goes... The word on the street is that Jesus has risen from the dead. All of the remaining eleven (Judas has committed suicide at this point) have seen Him except Thomas. Who knows, maybe Thomas had taken the weekend for a beach vacation or something...

When told that Jesus had risen from the dead, Thomas said, in effect, “Yeah, right. I be believin’ it when I be seein’ it!” Of course, he does indeed encounter Jesus, places his finger in the nail holes and falls in worship before His Savior. Jesus blesses him, but also says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe.”

It really is a pretty intense story. After all, most of us can groove on the idea of celebrating the return of spring, or bunnies, eggs, birds, bees, flowers and trees. We can even get into some kind of spiritual renewal that returns our spirits back to the Great Universal Who-Hah in the sky.

That isn’t the story of the Resurrection of Jesus.

The true Easter story is pretty ugly. It is the story of God becoming fully Man, suffering a horrific and torturous death. Really dead ...lungs not breathing, heart not beating, dried blood, rigor mortis.

The resurrection is physical and bodily. The same body that has died lives again. It is appointed to every person once to die, but the promise of God is that death is not the end. There is resurrection to a life that will never end. Without that promise ...not hope, promise! ...the whole business of Christianity is a cruel fraud.

Still, it is hard to believe. I have given my life to the service of this Gospel and I have a hard time believing it. I do believe it with all my mind, heart, soul and spirit, but I cling to it with tired fingers and a fearful and fast-beating heart. It is only through the grace of God that my weak hands can continue to cling to it.

I think Thomas gets a bad rap. I understand his doubt. I think Jesus Himself understood his questions. When Thomas says, “You gotta be kidding, Jesus... is it really You?” Jesus answers, “Yes, here, look at this big hole in my side.”

One of my favorite prayers in the ancient liturgy is, “Dear Lord, I believe. Help me with my unbelief!”

One of the things that helps us sustain our belief is to act out of our belief rather than act out of our doubt.

Sometimes those of us who labor as leaders in the Church -professional or lay- can't seem to get it through our thick heads that the success of our ministry is not up to us. The final words of Jesus' Great Commmission are often the hardest to claim: "...and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the Age."

In this Season of Resurrection, as we claim God's promises for our eternal life, let us be about His work in this world confident that He will keep His promise to be with us in all of the work that He has given us to do.

Then, we will act out of our faith and not out of our doubt.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Bill